In that case it is looking like a good deal.
Your timing might have been right then, an perhaps too early as you saw the sausage being made.

Try to convince them what a nightmare that dash is. Because in their position they cant replace it with aftermarket leather that wont perfectly match. They have to use Jag part, not cheap. If they say that it is cheap for them, then ask them to throw it into the deal. I bet they gave $20k on the trade-in.

What's your hypothesis for the worn start button- daily driver? she used her fingernail to push it?

 

And so it goes - the dealer is now weaseling out of repairing it on their dime.

Looks like they will not do the right thing. We're going to pass on this car because now all of a sudden after I found the defect - it is an "as is" car!

They will then fix it and raise the price - and yes, be warned - another crooked, shady dealer "Auto Nation - Mercedes Benz of Sarasota - surprise surprise!

 

Wait, these people can be dealt with. They have not priced the car as it is. At auction, which is the only place a car unconditioned will sell, it would not fetch $25k. Try to make them see that.

Many times these are silly employees who make unwise business decisions their superiors would not make. What they have said is that they absolutely dont want to get into restoring the car- I get that. What they havent said is that we will absolutely only take $27k. They cant have it both ways.

Another strategy is to get a dealer to call them and see what they want to sell it to another dealer for. I have a dealer who will do this if you dont.

Dont be discouraged, if it was a perfect car in every way, it would not be reasonable.

 

Friendly counterpoint: the 2007 is the original design [and in my opinion the best design], wood steering wheel, better gas mileage and according to this forum> a more reliable charging system [no CTEK maintainer needed]. The power is more than sufficient for daily driving. I would get the very best 2007-2008 you can afford with zero issues.


Just my 2˘

 

Incidentally- Trade in value is $17,000

You should see if my guy cant get it for you for $22k. The rest would be his profit.

$5k is better than a 10 year old dash in good condition, because for 3k you can get a new dash and then some.

 

This almost sounds like it could work! Unfortunately the dealer has already invested a lot of money - top, tires, brakes - all new - so their attitude is they think they have gold. They just don't want to honor their original price/condition that was advertised...

We would certainly be interested in seeing what's possible with this offer from another seller however - assuming new dashes are even still made?

MEANWHILE - the weasel has talked my husband into bringing another similar car (low mileage '07 XKR) over from an associate Mercedes dealership in Ft. Lauderdale.... here's where it got tricky - he said we had to transfer our deposit over to that car (contingent on inspection) in order to have it brought over. I think - What he really meant was we want to trick you into taking your deposit off of the above mentioned XK so they can weasel out of the deal!

 

They dont have as much money into it as you think. The proof is in the fact that they dont want to upholster the dash. Yes thats all its going to take and as others have stated and $1500 gets you out the door.

No way can can they sell that car for what they want without spending more money- wont happen. They always act like they have gold- standard operating procedure and used car salesman DNA.

Think about it some and we will have my friend get the wholesale price(just like they would be getting from the FTL dealer, only they want you to further assume the risk of the transportation from) He is an Aston and Ferrari dealer, so they wont be able to impress him with their 'gold'.

Think about the number you want him to get and send me a PM, I will call him.

 

PM sent - thanks so much. Worth a shot at least. This is a weekender car so we have time and the ability to be selective. We've been expanding the search in anticipation of this deal going south....

 

I have done this, although maybe a bit more surreptitiously.
I found a car I wanted but the dealer wouldn't budge on anything, so I went down the road a ways and talked to another dealership's manager. I told him which car I wanted, where it was and how much I'd pay for it. Four days later, I had myself that new(ish) Lincoln Continental at the price I'd pay. The second dealership got the sale, as it was a wholesale transfer between dealerships.

 

Got it. Responding now. The stars are perfectly aligned on this one- the dealer does not want to fix it, so motivated to sell non-retail. The other dealer that I know is trying to get into my graces to see if I will buy a Ferrari from him.

Its a good car when the money is right. There are no expensive surprises, and frankly I cant say that for any other exotic car. As you can we are a nice little community of cat lovers and help each other save heartaches.

 

Cee Jay, you were right about something, owe you an apology, here it comes, savor it. My Michelin tires are doing the same thing as yours.

So the shop says, there have been 3 model changes of tires since yours. I say you expect me to buy 4 different sets in 2 years. Clearly it was a work in progress.

 

 

Not sure who was dissing a NJ/NY purchase but, of course if the car was actually driven in the winter with salt etc, I couldn't agree more. But my XKR is a garage queen from Nov to March, and I would bet that for this car that is the rule not the exception.

BTW I bought my 2010 XKR via ebay from a private party in KY. It still had the extended warranty on it so I was a little less cautious, but as others have said don't limit your search. I'm not sure that Id even be so crazy about buying a FL car. I spend enough time down there and see a lot more sun-damaged car finishes than in more temperate NJ. The sun and heat would likely bake the rest of the car too.

 

There is nothing wrong with Autonation Mercedes, I purchased my daily driver E class from them. Also through an acquaintance who works for them I know that their pricing is actually dictated by Autonation corporate and they have a fixed price price they can sell the car for that is only adjusted based on how long it has been in their inventory, regardless of what they paid for the car. While it may be a sales tactic, there is a chance that by the time they factor any additional allowances for repairs such as the dash, their threshold for margin may be beyond what corporate will allow them to do today. I believe in our market there is enough demand for the car to not remain in their inventory too long.

I'm curious to see what or if they will do a wholesale deal to another non-Autonation dealer.

Ultimately you must decide, regardless of the current condition, if this car meets everything that you are looking for and fits your budget, even if you have to pay a little more to get everything addressed to your liking.

Also every Autonation car sold comes with a corporate backed 60 day bumper to bumper warranty, which should provide you with some additional peace of mind.

Since I am local and have years of experience buying and selling cars, I'd be happy to provide you with any assistance.

 

The city is merciless on humans and cars. I drive it often, (not in the Jag) The size of the potholes are breathtaking. The stop and go, then there is the bumper butting. Its all good fun in a rental car.

NJ is alright, but you cant rule out a NJ car commuting to the city.

 

The billionaire owned company is acquiring car dealers like crazy - over 310 and counting - though fixed pricing seems to be standard M.O. for dealers these days (probably due to the internet). In our experience if it's a large dealer, the less likely chance one has of price negotiation. Unregulated "dealer fees" are also tacked on top by the majority of them. It's surely margins set by corporate.

I think in our case, we might have actually surprised them and discovered a dash problem that they completely missed. They were clearly befuddled and unprepared to discuss or manage it.

Even for a dealer it has to be a $2000 hit to replace the dash - the more likely way a corporate policy would dictate (vs Joe's upholstery shop).

Us too! But it's certainly worth a shot, and if good enough would leave some room for other "surprises".

It's not perfect - and as such we'll only consider paying much less than our budget - not more. If we wanted to pay more we have an eye on some newer model cars.

Actually not true. The AN website States - "every used car is backed with a 3 day/150 mile MoneyBack Guarantee"
We did some grinding on the Sarasota weasel - because the Ft. Lauderdale XKR we were also looking at (AutoNation as well) claimed
"This vehicle passed Autonation's 125 pt inspection to award it Autonation Certification!! What this means to you is a 60-day/unlimited mile warranty on the vehicle" -
But the one in Sarasota did not advertise this and the weasel mealy mouthed around it. While at the weasel's desk, we saw the 125pt inspection on the work orders for the car on his computer, but strangely, they weren't offering the 60 days.

Your kind offer is very much appreciated! You can probably tell it's not our first rodeo. :-)
Let's see how this pans out. Either we'll be looking for a shop to repair/replace the dash - or we'll be searching for another car.

 

Koko I just took a quick look at Carfax.com , autotrader.com , cars.com and jaguarusa.com and there are dozens of 2007-2009 Jags for sale. I searched unlimited miles and you can get anything that you want with under 50K miles ranging from $25K to $40K . Higher mileage for less but there are plenty out there and they don't have damaged dash's . If I was looking for a chevy or a ford I would look locally but with these cars you need to search out what you want in color combo , mileage and price. Start looking outside of Fl. and maybe finding a car in Az. would be a nice little long weekend trip. Last year I bought a car for my kid. Searched the US and found one in Fl. Bought it on the net and had it shipped to NY. Only saw the car in pictures . The hunt is part of the fun.

 

Thanks! We're not having issues finding candidates - We've spotted a couple higher priced newer possibilities in NC & TX. - but hubby wants 2007 or newer, low mileage (well under 50K - closer to 20K if possible - AND under $30K. That really narrows it down. We have no problem flying to someplace to view a car - or remote hiring a local expert to inspect. We did that with his Chevy SSR convertible pickup (from Tulsa) and it worked well. We then had a transport company deliver it.

Anyway, it wouldn't be fun to "online buy" the one we've been talking about here for full retail price - only to have it arrive and discover it immediately needed $3500 worth of repairs which the dealer didn't disclose. That's what they tried to pull over on us!

Anyway there's STILL a chance this local one works out - if the PRICE becomes good enough to cover the repairs fully with some extra savings to compensate for the headaches. :-)

 

They are about as honest as a diploma from Trump University.

What they are saying is that a car they bought for half the selling price is too much expense to fix. A car you buy at twice the cost wont be too much trouble to fix. And unlike them you will be selling the car at half your cost. Drug dealers make a better proposition.

 

Sorry I probably need to clarify, I wrote that from my phone in the middle of the night.

The last digit of the sales price is the number of times the price on the car has been dropped. As far as how low corporate will go, what I was saying is let say the asking price of the car is $28K and their lowest price they will go, dictated by corporate is $24K, then they will not be able to sell it for anything less than $24K, unless corporate allows them to, and that only happens when the car has been in inventory a long time. Another thing they do for cars that are slow moving is shift them around to different markets.

When I said there was nothing wrong with them, that was too general of a statement. What I meant was, based on your comment "be warned - another crooked, shady dealer "Auto Nation - Mercedes Benz of Sarasota - surprise surprise!" they are not some fly by night buy here pay here dealer, they are huge. I mentioned I had done business with them and they have always been fair and no I never pay MSRP or anything close to it. As an example, try doing business with Wilde Jaguar across the street. They think their cars are made of gold...